Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: Keep or Fire Chris Ballard?

Starting point is 00:00:01 Indianapolis Colts General Manager Chris Ballard might be on the hot seat this offseason. Is it deserved? Let's get to it. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Thank you all for tuning in and making us your first listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, everyone. My name is Zach Hicks,

Starting point is 00:00:36 your resident film nerd over at HorseshoeHuddle.com. And my partner as always is Jake Arthur, our credentialed Crocs on the ground for the site as well. We have a fun show for you planned. We're talking all about general manager Chris Ballard. We're going to talk about the final verdict, what we would ultimately do with Chris Ballard's job this offseason if we had that kind of power. We're going to talk about what the Colts might ultimately do.

Starting point is 00:00:59 We're also going to make the case for keeping Chris Ballard for however short of a case that might be. And then obviously in segment one, we're going to talk about the case for firing slash dismissing Chris Ballard this offseason. Jake, it has been a fun couple of weeks. And I say that sarcastically, obviously with this Colts team, we've gone from playoff hopefuls to burn it all down, fire everybody. And we're in a similar situation with Chris Ballard now as we were in 2022, where you and I, we had freshly taken over this podcast, and we were saying, hey, it's time to move on from this guy.

Starting point is 00:01:34 It's time to move on. They elected to keep him through the next phase of Indianapolis Colts football. The team has, again, stagnated. And it feels like, honestly, it feels like if he gets another year we're going to have a 2022 type of season again like because the way it feels like this roster is bottoming out again uh but yeah i mean you have the numbers right here and i'll kick it to you in a second but chris ballard in his time as general manager 61 69 and one playoffs in only two of the eight years no afc south South titles, all other three, all the other

Starting point is 00:02:05 teams in the division have won it at least twice. And the Colts have gone four straight years without making the playoffs, which is their longest drought since 1994. Guys, I was negative three years old. My mom was still in high school when the Colts last had a drought like this. So it's pretty brutal right now, Jake. Yeah, it really is. And you mentioned 2022. That's like the last season that everyone can agree on everything. Like fans, players, everybody in the building, that season was awful. It was crazy. Some players won't even talk about it. And you want to see something that's pretty revealing. 16 of the 22 starters from that 2022 disaster are still starters. Now that's most of the, that's most of the team. That's pretty crazy. They have run it back a couple times in a row from a disaster,

Starting point is 00:02:59 both with their GM, most of the players, and it hasn't gotten them anywhere. We don't look at them and say that they have gotten much better. They got their new quarterback, but even they kind of slipped in their belief of him as well. They had to bench him briefly to get him to snap into the mindset of a franchise quarterback. They've got veteran players making high dollar amounts that are some of their more disappointing performers. And it's just pretty wild. But honestly, the most damning thing about that to me,

Starting point is 00:03:38 and I was kind of doing some background on this today, looking up some stats. The fact that all other three teams in the AFC South have not only won the division, but won it twice in a couple, I think the Jags and Texans have won it three times. So all other teams have won it twice, some three times, the Colts haven't won it at all. And I mean, there's been a lot of excuse making you know the Andrew Luck thing set them back sure sure sure but that was forever ago you know you said it the other day after after the the loss to the Giants like that just cannot we can't even mention

Starting point is 00:04:18 that anymore but unfortunately it's something you hear it seems like every few months still um but yeah man this is this is madness at this point. It's insanity doing the same thing over and over. And something's got to change. Yeah, at this point, the build has just run stale. I personally, and maybe this is the hot take here, because it's very anti-Chris Ballard, obviously culture or nature right now, I guess, with the fan base.

Starting point is 00:04:44 But I don't think he's a horrendous general manager. I think he's below average or average, you know, below average to average. And I think obviously this this build has run very stale. And I think he's been able to build this team up to an adequate roster, but they've clearly plateaued since becoming an adequate roster they have not taken any step forward they continually miss a quarterback potentially missing a head coach and I'm not even saying Shane Steich and Anthony Richardson are certainly done they've only had two years to do this thing compared to Chris Ballard having eight years at this thing so clearly there's more concern with Chris Ballard but yeah it's just run stale. Like this roster he has built has

Starting point is 00:05:25 really plateaued. And I think, again, the thing that you mentioned there, 16 of the 22 starters from 2022. Did anybody watch 2022 and think, man, all this team needs is a quarterback. All this team needed was a quarterback. Oh, and new corners. And don't get in. And here's the thing, too. The new corner starters from that team are Jalen Jones and Sam Womack now compared to Stephon Gilmore and Isaiah Rogers. That's not even an upgrade. Like, Stephon Gilmore was better than either of these two guys back in 2022. They downgraded at some of these positions that they changed, and they thought there

Starting point is 00:05:58 was going to be better results than one of the worst seasons we've had to endure in Indianapolis. And I mean, since 2011, obviously the worst one. But yeah, it was just a complete mess. So I don't know what was expected here. And one thing I really want to comment on, and again, I'm not in the building, so maybe you can enlighten me a little bit more, Jake. I know you're not obviously a player or anything like that,

Starting point is 00:06:19 but you can maybe enlighten more than I can. But when we talk about culture issues with an organization and the culture that is being brought by this tenure of Chris Ballard, I'm not talking about culture in terms of these guys are bad people. They're out here fighting reporters. They're punching each other in the locker room. Like, I really don't believe that. For as frustrated as I get with some of these players and stuff on the field,

Starting point is 00:06:43 I don't think these football players are bad people. I think they're genuinely good people. I've been able to build a relationship with a lot of these guys are really nice people, really good dudes. But when you have a culture set by the general manager of, you know, as long as I draft you, you're going to get paid here. If I draft you and you're a perfectly fine starter at, you know, as the bare minimum, I will pay you. You get this culture of complacency, this complete complacency, and maybe this inflated ego to a degree in terms of, you know, you think of yourself as better than the hungry guy you were coming in the lead, because you're consistently handed chances to be a starter when maybe you haven't earned that job.

Starting point is 00:07:21 And I'm not going to call out specific players, because certain players have been called out a lot this week. And we're talking more about the general manager here, but there's this system of, or this culture of complacency with the Colts where they're complacent with where they're at and no one's really getting pushed. Again, 16 to 22 starters from a team that won four games in 2022. Why are you running back all the same guys, or at least not pushing them like there should be more competition other than corner and quarterback you know those weren't the only issues on that 2022 team there needs to be more competition heck one of the few guys we saw

Starting point is 00:07:55 have big competition brought in this past offseason and ad mitchell brought in to push alec pierce what happened alec pierce came out and had a fantastic season this year. So maybe competition is the right way to go about it. And when you're an only draft and develop my guys in house type of general manager, you're not really pushing the other guys you drafted because you're all about just developing them. And I think that can work to a degree, but when it's reward guys, no matter what they actually do on the field, when you build that kind of culture, these guys get complacent in where they're at and they stagnate. And this roster, again, when you watch this team on Sunday, they just reek of complacency and stagnation. And they're not going they're not getting better. They're not going.

Starting point is 00:08:39 There's a couple of guys who improve year to year, but then they fall off. You know, Julian Blackman in 2023 had his best career season, comes back this season, his worst career season. Like, it's not like continual ascension. It's not guys continually getting better or making that jump into stardom. It's, I got paid, I hit complacency, and I'm good to go. And I think that is a product of this general manager. And that's kind of where we're at with this Colts team. And that's kind of my biggest thing with Chris Ballard is, it's just time to move on from that. I agree. I look at accountability and complacency is two of the big things that you see on film and just like in the lineups and everything who gets playing time.

Starting point is 00:09:20 There are some good stories like these guys from day three who work their way up and have become really good players. And they're rewarded for that. But then it's like the chip on the shoulder falls off. Their starting spot has been purchased with that new contract. And they stop pushing as much. That's not the case with everybody. There are some guys who are still obsessed with the craft and work, work, work all the time. But I think it was pretty eye-opening earlier this season when Kenny Moore in the locker room after a tough loss said, you know, I don't think everyone is preparing the right way. I don't,

Starting point is 00:09:54 I don't think, you know, he doesn't see that everyone is laser focused and being consistent and working hard in practice. Like that's pretty eye-opening. It's been a while since I've seen a Colts locker room willing to admit so many faults of other guys. They don't name specifics, but they give a peek into the background that they're, you know, things aren't all hunky dory. And that is the kind of culture issues we're really talking about there. It's not one group moving forward as one laser focused on the task at hand, wanting to be, you know, all the cliches, 1% better every day, climbing up the mountain, this and that. And it's like, like you said, some guys just are playing like they're complacent. They're not being pushed. And it kind of ties into something

Starting point is 00:10:45 else that we'll probably talk about more in the final segment. But when you kind of sit out the off-season acquisition process of free agency and trades and everything, and you're only supplementing your roster with the draft, you have needs and holes on your roster that have to be filled through the draft, which doesn't create much competition because those players you're drafting are immediately, they need to be starters or like rotational guys right away. They're not pushing other guys necessarily. And if they are, it's guys you were looking to replace anyways. There's just, they don't have many position groups on this team where you go into the off or come out of the off season.

Starting point is 00:11:26 You're like, oh, wow, they've got a good problem. Who are they even going to start here? They've got a bunch of guys. It's not that because the depth is lacking in so many areas. So not being pushed creates that complacency. And then guys are not, you know, preparing like they should. And then there's no accountability. And of course, the optics of it all have not been great.

Starting point is 00:11:46 Shane Steichen has been getting hammered publicly all week because of it so far. And actually, it's only Tuesday, I think. So long week for Shane already on a Tuesday. But yeah, that's what it gets you. It starts there at the top. And now you've just got this really boring team that just doesn't inspire a lot of optimism unless there's huge changes which like by and large every Colts fan is calling for at this point yeah I certainly think there needs to be some changes it's off season and honestly

Starting point is 00:12:19 when when you're at this point where we we gone the new coach route multiple times, we've gone the new quarterback route multiple times. There's really only one more person to point at at this point. And it is the guy who's been here for eight years and has only made the playoffs twice. And we can't even really say the roster is that great anymore compared to anything else. So coming up, though, guys, we're going to try to transition this conversation to talk about the case for bringing Chris Ballard back or what little of a case there might be. We'll try our hand at that here coming up in a second. Did Rocket Money help you find any subscriptions that you forgot about or you were paying for it even twice? That definitely happened to me. I had a few subscriptions that I didn't even realize that I was still paying for

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Starting point is 00:13:56 when using all of the app's premium features. So cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to rocketmoney.com slash locked on today. That's rocketmoney.com slash locked on, rocketmoney.com slash locked on. All right, so bringing Chris Ballard back. Zach, we're going to basically make the argument more for the Colts and why Jim Ursae would want to bring Chris Ballard back. Because as you guys could probably tell from our first segment, there's not much left there for Zach and I to really make the argument.

Starting point is 00:14:34 But there are some reasons for the Colts maybe to want to do it. Now, if you picture or if you imagine that Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen and Anthony Richardson, more so Ballard and Steichen, our package deal, tied at the hip, which is the awful phrase we heard before. That's something where perhaps the decision makers have said, you know, we're not getting rid of Ballard unless we get rid of Shane also or the whole trio, whatever. And they maybe don't want to totally clean house and make that drastic step. So that's part of it. And then there's also in 2021, I think it was Chris signed a five-year extension. So he's here through 26.

Starting point is 00:15:15 So financially, Jim Mercer would have to be paying another player or another person from the franchise who's no longer with the team yeah that's honestly the biggest argument for keeping chris ballard is it's cheaper to keep him than to fire him it really is cheaper to keep him because when if you fire him you're paying out the rest of his contract unless somebody else hires him and picks it up but i don't know if that would happen um and then you'd have to pay a new general manager on top of that. And when you're a franchise who is one of the cheaper franchises in the NFL, you go the cheaper option in a lot of ways. I'm not saying the Colts can't afford it. They certainly can afford it, but sometimes it is easier to bring them back.

Starting point is 00:15:58 I mean, that might be one of the reasons why in 2022 they kept Chris Ballard and just fired the head coach because it's easier to only pay two head coaches and heck they didn't even have to pay Frank Reich because the Panthers picked up that tab so it made that that kind of transition a little bit easier instead of having to fire and hire new guys and pay a bunch of contracts like that that's honestly the biggest argument for keeping Chris Ballard for the Colts. Maybe the other big argument would be Chris Ballard is, or Chris Ballard operates as a general manager in a similar fashion to what Jim Irsay wants. And what Jim Irsay wants is a general manager

Starting point is 00:16:35 who's going to draft and develop like Polian. That's a big part of what Jim Irsay wants. And he doesn't want to spend a ton on outside free agents. I mean, one of his biggest regrets, Irsay has said this on record multiple times, one of his biggest regrets of the Ryan Grigson era was those big free agent contracts that didn't work out. And the thing is with Chris Ballard is he doesn't really miss on free agent contracts. So usually when they do dole them out, I mean, outside of maybe the Matt Gay contract, which, I mean, hasn't been terrible. It's been bad, but not been terrible. They usually don't miss on free agent contracts. So

Starting point is 00:17:09 I do think Ursae likes that aspect where the drafts aren't atrocious. They're fine. Sometimes they're really good. Like in 2018 and 2020, those were two really, really good drafts for Chris Ballard. And, you know, he's able to build an adequate team without giving out terrible contracts and free agency. I do think that's how Ursa wants his teams to be run. Now, is he is Ballard even close to a Bill Polian? No, he's not. I mean, Polian hit home run after home run early on in his tenure. And it's why the Colts were able to build Super Bowl caliber teams and have a lot of in-house players turn into superstars and star players. I mean, Peyton Manning's obviously a big part of that, but you know, this Colts roster was pretty legit because of Polian's

Starting point is 00:17:55 drafting and Ballard's certainly a step below what Polian was able to do as a drafter. But I do think it's in a similar vein to what Ursae wants. I mean, one argument I can make, I guess, against that is you could probably find better drafters than Chris Ballard. But again, I think Ballard is in lockstep with how Ursae wants an organization to be run. And as Ballard said last offseason, you know, this is his approach to being a general manager. If it gets him fired, it gets him fired. And he's going to go down the same way he started, which is being a draft and develop guy who only uses free agency when it's absolutely necessary and and maybe even more so than that. And I think that's the way Ursae wants his franchises run. So, again, I think that's why he's stayed around for so long is, again, it's kind of cheaper to keep him.

Starting point is 00:18:40 And because he runs it the way Ursae wants, and maybe that hangs on for another year, you know? Yeah, well, one thing I will say for him is I do think he's good at finding talent in the scrap heap. You know, you look at some of his day three picks, and they've been guys that have earned second contracts with the team. You know, even going back to 2017, you know, he found Grover Stewart and Marlon Mack and Anthony Walker all on day three of that draft. And Anthony Walker was a decent player for the Colts and has gone on to start for a couple other teams. We all know Grover Stewart's been a success story. Marlon Mack was a successful runner here before his injuries. um, Zyra Franklin, EJ speed, Will Fries, Jalen Jones, all day three guys, uh, who have already, or will probably earn second, third contracts with the team. So you can even go the waiver route too. I believe Pierre Desir was his fine Kenny Moore, Samuel Womack. So like he can find

Starting point is 00:19:38 guys on the scrap heap just fine. It's the, it's the the the super valuable picks that seem to be where it's it's missing because obviously those are guys who are supposed to be cornerstones of your team and that's those have just been misses so far and another thing why he may be able to stay is there tends to be a scapegoat each year and he's avoided being it for the vast majority of it you know it was Carson Wentz uh Frank Reich you could probably say Matt Ryan I don't I don't think people were trying to kill Matt Ryan you know from the organization Jeff Saturday to a degree Jeff Saturday like to a degree to a degree there's always been someone to agree yeah there's always been someone to agree yeah there's always been someone to point the finger at that hasn't been Chris Ballard yeah time may be up I

Starting point is 00:20:32 don't know but who would it be who would it be this year yeah sure no Gus Gus is gonna fall on the sword no matter what no matter what Gus is gonna fall on that sword this year yes but that can't that's such a weak scapegoat in this whole like that is such a blip on on the radar of problems with this team but i mean you're you're right i mean regardless of what else happens like gus is probably gonna be one guy that that has to pay the price but yeah that's that's another reason is they've been able to spin this some way every year to where it's someone else's fault. Yeah, I'm curious to see who the scapegoat would be this time if he does keep his job.

Starting point is 00:21:14 But I will say this, and I'm going to let this also linger a little bit in the final segment when we talk about our verdict, but I don't think the fans are going to buy it this time. And I'm not saying that you should bend to the will of that you should bend to the will of the fans every single time. I mean, I love you guys. You guys are great. But there's a reason why we're not decision makers, obviously, in the NFL. And I don't think you should bend to the will of the fans for everything.

Starting point is 00:21:36 But I do think you need to sell fans on a vision. And I think you could sell them a little bit on 2022 with Ballard. I mean, to a degree. I mean, we're as optimistic as it gets, Jay, but we weren't even buying, keeping Chris Ballard after 2022. But you could still kind of sell it back then. I don't think you can sell it anymore. We said this after the Broncos game.

Starting point is 00:21:57 You certainly can't sell it after this Giants game. You can't sell another Chris Ballard season. So I'm curious to see if that factors into this, because you even have guys like, I mean, national guys like Pat McAfee and other like national media guys calling for, I mean, not directly calling for Chris Ballard to get fired, but directly calling for change. And I do think that will kind of factor into this a little bit, but coming up, we're going to talk about the final verdict. Do we think Chris Ballard is ultimately fired this offseason or is it running back for the ninth year in a row you know what they say guys ninth time

Starting point is 00:22:29 is the charm we'll talk about if the colts and chris ballard get a ninth time next year all right guys we are back talking all about chris ballard and will he get fired this offseason. And Jake, I will start off this segment by saying this. I think Chris Ballard's seat right now is hotter than it's ever been in Indianapolis. There are rumors, Albert Breer put out some rumors, that the Colts could depart with Chris Ballard this offseason, which we haven't really had those rumors before. We didn't even get those after 2022. It was very clear that he was safe after 2022 um so we are getting the rumors we are getting former players calling out the organization which we know is a factor in a lot

Starting point is 00:23:15 of things it just ultimately is you know jim ursae is anything he listens to former players especially from the glory years uh so that is certainly a factor here. I do think the fan response is very anti-Chris Ballard right now. So I do think there is more smoke here than there ever has been with Chris Ballard. Do we think it's enough, though, Jake? Do we think this is finally the time that he finally is the guy? He is the scapegoat for once. Or does he manage to pass it off to a Gus Bradley?

Starting point is 00:23:47 I don't know. I'm 50-50. Again, I think this is more likely than ever with him. But I don't know if it happens. Just because, I mean, Jim Irsay hasn't been very active this year. We don't know how involved he is with everything that's going on at this point, especially with his health scare earlier in the season. We know how much he loves Chris Ballard and how much he trusts the process with this thing.

Starting point is 00:24:10 And honestly, he's never really made a giant move like this outside of like, I mean, I guess he did with Grixen after like an eight win season in 2016 or 2017, whatever it was. It was kind of different, though. The yeah, the situation in that building was really toxic. And I think he brought Ballard in just to say like, okay, Gregson's out of here. Here's a new real GM. Give me a look at Pagano for a year and just see what you think.

Starting point is 00:24:38 And then you can move on to getting your, your own guy if you want. But with this, like, if not now, when, like, what is the breaking point? Have we not hit rock bottom? Like there's been some bad moments during this era and they've happened early on to most recently is Sunday where you say, Oh no, this is the new low. What are we waiting for? What's the breaking point? Like what's the criteria for him to keep his job? And like you said, what are we selling?

Starting point is 00:25:07 Like, why? I just don't think you can. Like, there are so many more. Yeah, it's like Jim would have to come out and defend it and answer as to why this whole group is still intact. Because it's clearly not working. Again, I think two huge things that actually do matter to jim or say are alumni support in the opinion which obviously is not going well right now

Starting point is 00:25:34 and the fans and like season tickets and stuff we've heard a lot the last week week or two about fans. They have grown apathetic. The last home game two weeks ago was the emptiest I've seen it in since 2022, I think. Now there are some people who've said like it filled in later. It still was pretty empty. And it being a whiteout game made it look even worse. You could see just how many empty seats there were. So again, I have a bird's eye view of that place every Sunday. game was made it look even worse you could see just how many empty seats there were so again I have a bird's eye view of that place every Sunday that was one of the most emptiest I've

Starting point is 00:26:10 seen it I think it was Greg Doyle put on social media today and Nate Adkins both mentioned that fans have reached out to them and you know talked about selling their seats. I think Greg put out a heat map of the Sunday's season finale. Sorry. I've got visiting dogs, and they don't take well of this either. But no, just the amount of people trying to sell their tickets for this finale. We know there's people who are not renewing their season tickets, and that's financial. That's fan support.

Starting point is 00:26:46 And it's literally money not going into your pocket. Those two things, that matters quite a bit. Yeah. And again, it all comes back to that decision in 2022 to keep Chris Ballard around for the next phase of Indianapolis Colts football. You know, if this is a new, if we're in year, if we're going into year three of Steichen, Richardson, and a new general manager, yes, we're feeling concerned right now, but it's not really like burn it all down because I think even for a lot of the hatred that Shane Steichen and

Starting point is 00:27:17 Richardson are getting right now, which I do think a lot of it's valid because there are concerns there. It's still not the same level as what we all think of Chris Ballard right now, because Ballard is just so much more stale to all of us. You know, he's been here for so long. He's had a direct hand in everything that's been built here right now. And I think my ultimate thing with Chris Ballard is after another embarrassing loss this past Sunday, which makes so many embarrassing losses in his time as general manager and not even counting like 2017 or 2019, even where there were actual excuses. But we're at the point where we are facing so many embarrassing losses with

Starting point is 00:27:56 this team. And it's just the same thing every year, you know, and there's no excuses anymore for him. Like you said, the scapegoats have been here in the past where, oh, Carson Wentz wasn't who he wanted. It was all Frank Reich. So then Frank Reich was the scapegoat. And then the worst comeback allowed ever, you know,

Starting point is 00:28:15 the biggest comeback in NFL history with the Vikings game and the multiple blowouts at the end of 2022, those were all on Jeff Saturday, who was a guy who was in over his head, which, I mean, again, to a degree, I agree with all these things, but he has to have some culpability in all these things. He had some role in all those things, but he had that scapegoat. Right now, though, if you, like, anything you want to point to on this roster, the head coach isn't good enough. Well, who just hired the head coach? That was Chris Ballard. The quarterback's not good enough. Who drafted this quarterback? Chris Ballard. The roster's not good enough. Who drafted this quarterback? Chris Ballard. The roster's not good enough.

Starting point is 00:28:46 Who built this roster? Chris Ballard. There are zero holdouts from Ryan Grigson outside of Ryan Kelly. Ryan Kelly is the only guy left from the Grigson era. Every other player on this roster is a Chris Ballard player. So you can't point at the roster and say that's not Chris Ballard. Culture, whatever. Who sets the culture?

Starting point is 00:29:03 The general manager. He's one of the higher up guys in the building. So every kind of reason why this Colts team has fallen apart this season and each of the last four seasons and how they're on this four straight season, you know, missing the playoffs, Chris Ballard's had a hand in all of that.

Starting point is 00:29:20 So it's just time, man. Like I'm perfectly fine with giving general managers plenty of time to rebuild and reshape a roster. I was fine with the tear it all down approach in 2017. I think they were a little bit ahead of schedule in 2018. I was fine with even having to regroup and maybe even going the veteran quarterback route like they did in 2020.

Starting point is 00:29:40 And even 2021, I agree with the process. But since 2021, this roster has been stale, stagnant, and complacent. The quarterback they drafted high has regressed. The head coach that they had a lot of hope in last year has regressed. And I'm not seeing optimistic future right now for this Colts team with the way everything is being run. And Chris Ballard is at the heart of all of it. So for me personally, I think it's just

Starting point is 00:30:05 time. It really is time. I don't think he's a terrible general manager. I think he's a fine drafter, a perfectly fine drafter. He gets a couple productive guys out of every single draft. He neglects free agency, which I think makes his drafts a little worse than what they actually are, but he's missed on too many high picks. He has built a complacent culture in Indianapolis, and he's missed on, I mean, I'm not going to say he has missed on Richardson and Steichen, but it's not looking great right now. And he's the guy behind all this. So it's just time, man. It really is time. And it sucks if we have to give up on Steichen and Richardson because of this, but personally, I'm perfectly fine with giving up on both of them if it means giving up on

Starting point is 00:30:46 Chris Ballard, because I just don't know a way that we get out of this stagnation other than getting rid of Chris Ballard. So that's where I'm at with this, guys. I just I don't know. I just don't see it with him anymore. I could maybe make a case for myself in 2022 when I had to resign myself to the fact that he was sticking around again. But I can't make the case for myself anymore. I can't even talk myself into it. And I'm great at talking myself into things. You guys hear me on this show all the time, talk myself into everything. But Jake, do you have any final words, your final thoughts on Chris Ballard as a general

Starting point is 00:31:18 manager going forward? Yeah, just looking back at it, the reality of, you know of the fact they had the disaster that was 2022. They knew they had to kind of tear things down a little bit, get a new head coach in, allowed Chris Ballard to lead that search, get them their new head coach. And after one season with that head coach, they stayed totally static basically through the offseason. Joe Flacco, Raekwon Davis, the only free agents they brought in. You had a new head coach, and you didn't want to add more suitable players to his roster. You guys just thought it was fine. Predictably, it didn't go well because they thought they were one Anthony Richardson away

Starting point is 00:32:00 from kicking this thing into the postseason. And although the Houston Texans regressed mightily, you guys are eliminated by week 16, week 17 now. So that didn't work. Now, one avenue, and I know we're kind of going on another little thing here. I'll try to make it quick. But one other avenue, you know, Albert Breer mentioned on the Rich Eisen show yesterday, the murmur, the smoke,

Starting point is 00:32:25 if the Colts were to make a move off of Chris Ballard would be basically to kind of allow Shane Steichen to pair himself with a GM who is, you know, maybe more like-minded and they could be in lockstep and someone who could supplement the roster with players Shane and his coaches really like. So how we normally see a GM pick the coach and that's the relationship. And, you know, the, the coach coaches a certain way to fit schematics of how the GM wants to do it. This would be kind of the coach running the show with the GM adding the type of players that they want. So there's not a ton of precedence for the Colts doing that.

Starting point is 00:33:04 So I don't know how much they would really do it, but that is one avenue for it. Well, I think you're setting up a perfect premise for another show, for another way for us to cover this topic. So that's more of a future episode, I think, there, Jake, but some smoke there with the Albert Breer report that we will certainly talk about in the coming days. We do want to thank you guys for making Locked on Culture first listen today

Starting point is 00:33:25 and every day, though. Next, go make Locked on NFL your next listen. First, the Madman Tyler Rowland kicks off your morning with a double shot of NFL espresso, and then stop by the barbershop with Tony Wiggins for some real NFL talk. And if you guys don't already, make sure you're following at Locked on Colts, at JakeArthurNFL, and at Zach Hicks, too, on Twitter. We're also on TikTok and Instagram.

Starting point is 00:33:44 We're on all those social media platforms for you guys. Also, subscribe to us on YouTube, wherever you list your podcasts. We love your guys' ratings and views. And we'll catch you guys back here tomorrow for Crossover Thursday. No, Wednesday's tomorrow. Sorry, Wednesday. We'll be back with another show tomorrow for Wednesday, Crossover Thursday.

Starting point is 00:34:00 It's been a long week, man. In two days. So we'll be back here tomorrow afternoon. Maybe talk about that Albert Breer report.

Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: Keep or Fire Chris Ballard?

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